The use of multiple interconnected devices over a wide area, colloquially known as “internet of things” or “IOT,” is a rapidly growing area of electronics engineering. Each interconnected device in an IOT arrangement can include one or more radio frequency (RF) components to provide signal transmission and reception with respect to other devices in the same network. The sheer number of interconnected devices in such arrangements has accompanied significant increases in the signal processing burden on electronic systems. One of the most important procedures for determining compliance with consumer and technical demands is “phase noise” testing of RF components. Phase noise generally refers to the short-term and random fluctuations in the phase of a waveform expressed in the frequency domain. Phase noise stems from time domain instabilities of a signal, also known as “jitter.”
Testing the phase noise in an electronic system conventionally requires the assistance of a test house. The test house may provide a large number of testing devices for examining the amount of phase noise in the signal processing components of a device. The speed of testing depends heavily on the total number of test devices that are available in the test house at a given time. The ever-increasing manufacturing volume and consumer demand for devices with RF components has caused a strain on test houses, e.g., because testing speed may not be sufficient for a testing device to be available for all products at all times. Simply purchasing or building more testing equipment will not be enough to ease this burden because each test structure carries an immense manufacturing cost and will nonetheless continue to perform tests at too slow a rate by conventional test methods.